544 EXTINCT AND VANISHING MAMMALS 



FLORIDA MANATEE 

 TRICHECHUS MANATUS LATIROSTRIS (Harlan) 



Manatus latirostris Harlan, Journ. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, ser. 1, vol. 3, pt. 2, 



p. 394, 1824 (Near the capes of eastern Florida). 

 FIG.: Nelson, 1916, p. 467 (col. fig.). 



In his original description of the Florida manatee, Harlan 

 was concerned chiefly in distinguishing it from the African 

 manatee and hence neglected to show clearly how it differed 

 from the West Indian and Caribbean animal. True (1884b), 

 also, long ago "satisfied" himself of the distinctness of the 

 Florida manatee from the Caribbean form, but again failed to 

 state the diagnostic characters; while the latest reviewer of the 

 subject (Hatt, 1934) regards the Florida manatee as a race of 

 the West Indian manatee, from which it differs in minor 

 skeletal characters. Even these, however, are subject to an 

 unascertained degree of individual variation, but are chiefly: 

 The first phalanx in the digits of the hand is proportionally 

 longer; the snout is apparently shorter in the Florida animal; 

 pterygoid process usually longer with palatine and pterygoid 

 points equal and longer than the alisphenoid, instead of one or 

 the other longer; and especially the shape of the foramen 

 magnum, which though oval in both (rather than roundish as 

 in the African and Amazon species), has its dorsal rim flat 

 instead of strongly curved. How far these differences may hold 

 with larger and more representative series remains to be shown. 



Assuming that the Florida manatee is slightly different from 

 that of the Caribbean Sea and West Indies implies also the 

 distinctness of habitat and the failure of the two populations 

 to mingle except on rare occasions. The range of the Florida 

 manatee is in general the coastal waters, lagoons, and lower 

 courses of such streams as Indian River of the Florida Penin- 

 sula. According to E. W. Nelson (1916), however, "in summer 

 it sometimes strays as far north as the coast of Virginia." 

 H. H. Brimley (1931) reports one caught near Wilmington, 

 N. C., September 11, 1919. Ordinarily they are rare even as 

 far north as St. Augustine but are common in the Indian River, 

 nearly as far as its head, and south along the coast and around 

 the tip of the peninsula for a short distance on the west side. 

 Formerly they were commoner than now and apparently more 

 generally distributed. C. J. Maynard, writing in 1872, says 

 that he was informed by credible authorities that it was re- 



